eL Seed is Shifting Perceptions

Dubai - From his new studio in Alserkal Avenue street artist eL Seed tells us about the power of perception

Bright colours written, scratched, scribbled, spray painted . . . graffiti in its appearance and message is anything but subtle. It can be a drawing, a poem, a mural on a wall, on the sidewalk, a whole building could be telling you a simple story.
Dubai isn't the kind of city where you'd expect to see neighborhoods sprawled with images by graffiti artists. So when a swirling mass of spray painted words appear across a whole building you will definitely notice it. Especially when it's the work of eL Seed.
The French-Tunisian street artist, whose works incorporate traditional Arabic calligraphy now known as calligraffiti, has opened a studio in Alserkal Avenue Arts district in Al Quoz.
eL Seed's work, which has appeared across continents, incorporating elements of both the graffiti and Arabic calligraphic traditions, creatE startling images that are both ancient and modern, appealing to a mass audience. eL Seed's work is going beyond the normal to expel pre conceived notioins and shift perceptions about graffiti in the form it appears and where it exists.
eL Seed's latest project is the perfect example of this. 'Perception' aimed to bring light to a community in the neighborhood of Manshiyat Nasr in Cairo. The Coptic community of Zaraeeb has been collecting the trash of the city for decades and has developed one of the most efficient and highly profitable recycling systems in the world. Yet the community and its people are perceived as dirty and are segregated.
"I am questioning the level of judgment and misconception society can unconsciously have upon a community based on their differences," eL Seed stated. "I created an anamorphic piece that covers almost 50 buildings only visible from a certain point of the Moqattam Mountain. The piece of art uses the words of Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, a Coptic Bishop from the 3rd century, that said: 'Anyone who wants to see the sunlight clearly needs to wipe his eye first.'"
It's a combination of the aesthetic power of words and their meaning that makes his pieces appealing to a large mass of people including French fashion house Louis Vuitton who approached eL Seed to design a number of pieces for them.
eL Seed sat with City Times in his new studio and talked to us about the power of words, rejecting labels and all the elements that have brought to him to where he is today.

What's in a Name?
eL Seed was a play that we studied in French school in the late 90s called Le Seed. Our teacher told us that the name came from the Arabic word Al Sayed which means the man. I was 16 And I thought yes, I'm going to call my self eL Seed.

You are an . . .
. . . artist. The funny thing is people always want to label you. When you're Arab, people want to label you as Arab, when you're Muslim they want to call you an Arab Muslim. Me, I'm a street artist so they always want to put some label. Today I just defend myself as an artist. I'm doing something that is, I hope, universal in a certain way. I see how people react to my work . . . there is a beauty in Arabic script that anybody can feel.

Why Dubai?
I see the energy in the arts scene here. I think it's the best place for me to be and when you see a place like Alserkal Avenue being built and growing and you see the energy and enthusiasm of people who come here... I think this is the right place for me. You're part of a community, part of a network. It's the right spot I guess, it's the right place and this is the right time.

Combing Graffiti and Arabic Calligraphy
I started learning how to read and write in Arabic when I was 18. Then I discovered Arabic calligraphy. I And at this time I was working in the business field in New York. I wasn't doing anything creative, any art . . . I wanted to paint in Arabic and took it step by step. And the funny thing when I started painting in Arabic everything came so naturally and it felt like it was in me for a long, long time.

Inspiration and Identification
I get most of my inspiration from books I read, I listen to talks . . . I don't want to say I'm a poet. Google says I'm a poet if you type my name. They don't say artist, they say poet but I work with words. I'm always trying to find the right word for the right place. This is really important to me.

Cultural Influences
I don't think I would be doing this if I was raised in Tunisia because I didn't know how to read or write in Arabic before I was 18 so even my handwriting is really bad. The whole thing started as a quest of identity. I didn't feel French in France so I needed to go back to my Arabic roots and this is how I decided to learn Arabic. Learning Arabic made me want to learn more about my culture and my history and then I discovered calligraphy. I used to reject my French identity because in France they make you feel that you cannot be French and something else. Either you are something else or French. The fact that I learnt Arabic and I worked in calligraphy made me accept my French side. The fact that I explored the Arabic side of my identity made me, after years, accept my French part.

Global Graffiti
I think the goal of my work is to make a bridge between people and culture and generations. Art is like a universal language. I paint in Arabic and I've been to places where people don't get any interaction with the Arabic world or Arabic culture. You see people, how they feel connected to my work because I make sure what I'm writing is from them. It's a translation of their own words. And you see the power of art through this and that's what I think is really amazing. And there is a social impact and I've seen it. I'm not going to say that my art is going to change the world, but in some places it changes perceptions. I think if you just change the perception of one person toward a community, toward people, toward anything, if you give them awareness about an issue, I would say I achieved something.

Louis Vuitton
It's an established brand, it's a French brand and for me being born the son of an immigrant in France from a low social class and having this huge brand coming to me and asking me to design something for them, I thought 'wow this is cool.' And I don't like to say this, I don't want to be arrogant, but I was the first Arab guy to design something for them. They chose me.

Dream Location
The list would be so long. I don't think there is an idea like our  dream place because for me every place I've been, form    South America to South Asia I got the chance to put my mark on every continent and that's amazing when you see somebody working on a place and finding your wall. But I don't think there is one place in particular that I want to be but I would love to go to Palestine to paint as well. That's something I would love to do. Going to just raise awareness about the place and also enjoying the beauty of the place as well. That's what sometimes we forget and I guess art is a good reminder of how beautiful the people and a place can be.